CAREER: Implications of a neurobiological model of memory for education: how novelty exposure transforms poor learning into durable memories

这个项目由德克萨斯大学的一名新研究员领导，其目标是了解将糟糕的学习转化为持久记忆的条件，最终目标是改善教育成果。该项目利用了啮齿动物开创性的行为神经科学研究，表明在学习期间接触新鲜事物可以增强弱记忆。众所周知，接触新奇事物会刺激参与长期记忆形成的分子和细胞过程。值得注意的是，现在在实验动物身上有强有力的证据表明，接触新奇事物可以作为一种工具，用来稳定在接触新奇事物期间学到的其他形成不良的记忆。这种新奇事物会追溯性地增强对先前经历的记忆的观点，挑战了关于动物如何学习和记忆信息的普遍假设。它还提出了一系列有趣而重要的问题，即如何利用人类对新奇事物的接触来提高对容易遗忘的信息的记忆。一系列的行为、心理生理学和神经成像实验将试图解决这些参数，通过这些参数，新奇可以作为一种工具来拯救薄弱的学习能力。该项目最终将研究生物学和地球科学等领域的概念学习。这项研究的最终目标是开发创新和廉价的工具，以促进现实环境中的学习和记忆。除了研究项目之外，还有一个向学生和当地社区进行公众宣传的计划，指导，以及与教育研究人员发展合作的计划，最终将研究成果转化为改善真实教育环境中的学习表现。该项目得到了德克萨斯大学EHR核心研究（ECR）项目的CAREER奖的支持，该项目支持推进STEM学习基础研究文献的工作。这个项目试图将在啮齿动物行为神经科学中发现的“行为标签”概念转化为人类。行为标记是基于长期记忆的神经生物学模型（称为“突触标记”），该模型详细说明了弱突触增强如何为长期记忆创造条件，但前提是弱增强在关键时间窗内伴随着更强的突触增强。行为标记将这种神经生物学模型扩展到行为领域，表明次优学习可以通过学习后的单独和更显著的经验来拯救。新奇暴露通常被作为一种独立的、更显著的体验来利用，因为众所周知，新奇会诱发海马体的长期增强，通过中脑向海马体释放多巴胺，并上调可塑性相关基因。因此，接触新奇事物可能是一种有价值的工具，可以刺激对同一时间所学到的其他信息的记忆形成。事实上，啮齿类动物的研究表明，如果学习伴随着随后的新开放领域，那么形成不良的海马体依赖记忆就会转化为持久的长期记忆。这个项目将在人类身上测试行为标签假说。新事物暴露是否能改善海马体依赖性记忆，包括空间记忆、情境恐惧条件反射、模式分离、记忆整合以及教育相关材料的学习和转移。目标是深入了解新奇事物是否以及如何增强人类形成不良的记忆，最终目标是发现简单、廉价和创新的工具来改善STEM学习。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this project, led by a new investigator at the University of Texas, is to understand the conditions by which poor learning can be transformed into a durable memory, with the ultimate goal of improving educational outcomes. The project leverages groundbreaking behavioral neuroscience research in rodents showing that weak memories can be enhanced through exposure to novelty around the time of learning. It is known that novelty exposure stimulates the molecular and cellular processes involved in long-term memory formation. Remarkably, there is now strong evidence in laboratory animals that novelty exposure can be used as a tool to stabilize other, poorly formed, memories learned around the time of novelty exposure. This idea that novelty exposure retroactively strengthens memory for prior experiences has challenged common assumptions about how animals learn and remember information. It also raises a host of intriguing and important questions on how to harness novelty exposure in humans to improve memory for information that is prone to forgetting. A series of behavioral, psychophysiological, and neuroimaging experiments will attempt to address the parameters by which novelty can be used as a tool to rescue weak learning. The project will culminate in a study of conceptual learning in such fields as biology and geoscience The ultimate goal of this research is to develop innovative and inexpensive tools for promoting learning and memory in real-world settings. Alongside the research project is a plan for public outreach to students and the local community, mentorship, and a plan to develop collaborations with educational researchers to ultimately translate research findings to improve learning performance in authentic educational settings. The project is supported by a CAREER award to the University of Texas by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances the fundamental research literature on STEM learning.This project attempts to translate the concept of 'behavioral tagging,' which was discovered in rodent behavioral neuroscience, to humans. Behavioral tagging is based on a neurobiological model of long-term memory (known as 'synaptic tagging') which details how weak synaptic potentiation creates the conditions for a long-term memory, but only if weak potentiation is accompanied by stronger synaptic potentiation within a critical time window. Behavioral tagging extends this neurobiological model to the realm of behavior by showing that suboptimal learning can be rescued by a separate and more salient experience after learning. Novelty exposure is often utilized as this separate and more salient experience, as it is well-known that novelty induces long-term potentiation in the hippocampus, releases dopamine to the hippocampus via the midbrain, and upregulates plasticity related genes. Thus, novelty exposure may be a valuable tool to stimulate memory formation for other information learned around the same time. Indeed, rodent studies show that poorly formed hippocampal-dependent memories are transformed into durable long-term memories if learning is accompanied by subsequent exposure to a novel open field. This project will test the behavioral tagging hypothesis in humans. It will be discovered whether novelty exposure can improve a host of hippocampal-dependent memories including spatial memory, contextual fear conditioning, pattern separation, memory integration, and learning and transfer of educationally-relevant material. The goal is to gain insight on whether and how novelty enhances poorly formed memories in humans, with the ultimate goal of discovering straightforward, inexpensive, and innovative tools to improve STEM learning.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.